Thanks to Fidel Fernando for sharing his work on Unsplash
By BOB SCHILDGEN*
My finest accomplishment–not that I’m burdened with choices in this department–is the creation of five-hundred cubic feet of topsoil, with the aid of billions of unidentified micro-organisms, and earthworms churning through the compost, and several rabbits who worked with uncommon dedication to contribute manure and maintain morale: Myrtle, who passed away of old age– Habermas, who was murdered by a pit bull that ripped the bottom from his cage– Sartre, who perished suddenly from unknown causes, and Derrida, who is uncommonly fond of dandelions. Five hundred cubic feet of topsoil from sheer waste, to enrich a garden, transform to food and flower orange peels, tea leaves, clippings, weeds, a bonsai Mount Fuji of compost power. The world needs all the compost it can get. Topsoil made us what we are, without it we simply don’t exist, which is an earnest modern way to say God did indeed make Adam out of clay.
Imagine a world transformed by compost, fertile, abundant, fecundant reckless green. Imagine cargo ships loaded with topsoil for every compost-craving corner of the world. Imagine nuclear submarines distributing topsoil! Military transport planes packed with topsoil! Precision missiles delivering topsoil exactly where most needed. Aircraft carriers piled high with topsoil! Bombers dropping two-ton bombs of topsoil! Preemptive strikes of topsoil, weapons of mass destruction buried under thousands of feet of steaming compost! Imagine composters in every land, tending peaceful heaps, singing in a vast harmony of regeneration. Down slopes of compost comes the world’s salvation.
*From Hey Mr Green, Sierra
Magazine, May 25, 2010; reprinted for educational and informative purposes.
After six months of enduring this tragic but
preventable COVID-19 pandemic, there is still no national leadership. More than
200,000 Americans will die, and hundreds of thousands will suffer through the
disease process, and then continue to have debilitating symptoms long after.
Compare the response to how quickly our nation mobilized for war after less
than 3000 died on 9/11; war that we continue to fight in the Middle East and
Africa.
The inadequacies of our healthcare and public
health systems and the persistent shortages of equipment, supplies, hospital
beds and timely testing underscore the fact that military-related activities
are the highest priority of the U.S. government. Its 2020 military budget is
$738 billion. That’s over $84 million an hour for war. That’s where our tax
dollars go and that’s where the resources are—spread around the world to
intimidate and do harm, rather than good.
The President’s recent extravagant patriotic
speeches and ceremonies ignore the pandemic and instead, extol the virtues of
“law and order” and the largest military budget ever. Flyovers of fighter jets,
used as a way of showing appreciation to healthcare workers treating COVID-19,
demonstrates an effort to tie all aspects of our life, even this most desperate
public health situation, into the U.S. war culture. Obviously, the cost of
these nationwide military tributes and ceremonies, which is significant, could
have provided medicine, testing, facemasks, and other items that are still
desperately needed to help stem the spread of this disease. Perhaps these
expensive public relations stunts were an effort to distract us from the
government’s continuing failed leadership in handling the COVID-19 crisis.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if war was deemed a
non-essential activity, and our country focused instead on eliminating
healthcare disparities, systemic racism, aggressive policing, poverty, and
this heartbreaking pandemic. These are the things that are terrorizing
Americans.
Material submitted by Lewis Randa, who received an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector from the military during the Vietnam War in 1971.
CO Memorial Stone at Cambridge Friends Meeting, Cambridge, MA. A gift from the Peace Abbey Foundation
May 15 is International Conscientious Objectors Day. Although conscientious objection to war is not a hot media topic today, respect, admiration, and appreciation for conscientious objectors (COs) will be expressed (mostly distally) around the world this Friday May 15; see here, for example.
The Peace Abbey, in Sherborn, MA, maintains a site that provides numerous materials regarding concientious objection, including historical information, a copy of the National Registry form , and a rich discussion of pacifism, reprinted here:
“Pacifism is opposition to war and violence. The word pacifism was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud (1864–1921) and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ahimsa (to do no harm), which is a core philosophy in Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism. While modern connotations are recent, having been explicated since the 19th century, ancient references abound.
Pacifism covers a spectrum of views, including the belief that international disputes can and should be peacefully resolved, calls for the abolition of the institutions of the military and war, opposition to any organization of society through governmental force (anarchist or libertarian pacifism), rejection of the use of physical violence to obtain political, economic or social goals, the obliteration of force, and opposition to violence under any circumstance, even defence of self and others. Historians of pacifism Peter Brock and Thomas Paul Socknat define pacifism “in the sense generally accepted in English-speaking areas” as “an unconditional rejection of all forms of warfare”.[4] Philosopher Jenny Teichman defines the main form of pacifism as “anti-warism”, the rejection of all forms of warfare.[5] Teichman’s beliefs have been summarized by Brian Orend as …’A pacifist rejects war and believes there are no moral grounds which can justify resorting to war. War, for the pacifist, is always wrong.’ In a sense the philosophy is based on the idea that the ends do not justify the means.[6]“
Lewis Randa is a Quaker, pacifist, vegan, educator, and social change activist. He is the founder and director of The Life Experience School for children with disabilities (1972); The Peace Abbey, an Interfaith Center for the study and practice of Nonviolence and Pacifism (1988); The Special Peace Corps., an organization that provides community service programs for adults with mental challenges (1990); The Courage of Conscience Award, an international peace award for nonviolent contributions to peace and justice (1991); The National Registry for Conscientious Objection, a register for people of all ages to publicly state their refusal to participate in armed conflict (1992); The Pacifist Memorial, a national monument honoring pacifists throughout history (1994); The Veganpeace Animal Sanctuary, a safe haven for animals that have escaped from slaughterhouses following the rescue of Emily the Cow (1995); Stonewalk, a global peace walk that involves physically pulling a two-ton memorial stone for Unknown Civilians Killed in War (Documentary shown on PBS) (1999 – 2005); Citycare, an empowerment program for the homeless (2000); R.A.T.C., the college-based Reserve Activist Training Corps; and The Lavender House, a Group Home for adults with disabilities (2002).
